"I wasn't born here, but got here as quickly as I could!" This was my one liner upon meeting a fellow Texan who questioned how the heck an Ohio girl ended up in Houston! I LOVE my home state, but over the past 14 years (OMG!) have set some pretty deep roots in Texas and am proud to call it home. After a few years living here I caught on to some wardrobe items that I hadn't seen before, the guayabera being one of them. Excuse me, a guy-a-what?!
To educate some of my folks from the north, a guayabera is: a lightweight collared Latin American shirt with two breast pockets and two pockets over the hips, typically having short sleeves and worn untucked.
Texas guys love to rock these shirts! At first glance, I loved how lightweight they were and the unique patterns/designs instantly caught my eye. Why don't they make these for the ladies I thought to myself?! Maybe they did, but I had yet to come across one when Paris Texas Apparel Co approached me about a fun little design collaboration. I've been shopping Paris Texas online and in their Houston flagship store for years for clothing and gifts for all of the guys in my life, so was really excited to hear more about their vision to design guayabera dresses for women.
Thus began a 9 month long dress creation story! We teamed up with the talented David Peck, Houston based fashion designer behind the brand Miles David, to design the perfect silhouette for our guayabera dress! David's classic shift dresses have been a favorite of mine so I knew we were in great hands to create a dress that would be feminine, flattering and well made.
Caroline Harper, of House of Harper, and I both got to create our own dresses based upon our own personal style and brands. I am beyond thrilled with the finish product. For the House of Harper dress, Caroline created a three-quarter sleeve guayaberas dress in a classic blue and white striped seersucker style which I love for summer and all of the America holidays!
The L. Avenue dress that I designed is a sleeveless popover dress with vertical embroidery, accented with pleating, and a button front and collared neckline. Red and pink are probably my favorite (and in my opinion an underrated) color combination so I chose a red windowpane fabric with scarlet and hot pink embroidery in a fun geometric pattern.
Paris Texas guayabera dresses are so lightweight, perfect from the carpool and errands to game day celebrations and outdoor events. This is such an easy dress to throw on when you have 2 minutes to get ready and can still look pulled together. I've also worn my dress belted over skinny jeans for a longer tunic look.
We're so excited that y'all, my fab L. Avenue readers, can shop the dress early starting today before it's available to the public via this exclusive link! It will be available at paristexasco.com online and in the Paris Texas Apparel Company Houston store on this Thursday, as well.
$175
Available in sizes XS (0-2) S (4-6) M (6-8) L (10-12) XL (12-14)
Feel free to d/m me on Instagram if you have sizing questions, I wear a size xs in this dress.
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